Stark Policy differences between candidates in GOP District 19 Primary

As Dan McKay of the Albuquerque Journalnoted in today’s paper, “In this year’s legislative session, he had the second-highest score issued by the libertarian-leaning Rio Grande Foundation, which examined all 112 legislators’ votes on matters of “individual liberty and economic freedom.”

This is an accurate statement, but the differences between Rep. Gregg Schmedes and Sen. James White when it comes to policy issues could not be greater. The following are some of the most important votes tracked in our Freedom Index the last few years:

In 2019 White voted FOR the Energy Transition Act (also known as New Mexico’s “Green New Deal” SB 489 (Schmedes voted NO). This bill imposes a costly 50% “renewable” mandate on New Mexico utilities and their customers and bails PNM out of its San Juan Generating Station;

In 2019 White voted FOR HB 6 (Schmedes voted NO) which was a major tax hike on all New Mexicans. This tax hike was passed despite the existence at the time of a budget surplus in excess of $1 billion;

Also in 2019 White voted for HB 2 (Schmedes again voted NO). HB 2 was the budget. It boosted spending by an unsustainable 11% in a single year. While no one could have predicted the collapse in oil and gas revenues or the New Mexico economy in general, there was no doubt that 11% budget growth was unsustainable. White AGAIN voted for a bloated budget in 2020 (also HB 2). The total spending increase in two years was 21% and White voted for all of it (Schmedes voted against it).